1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a secondary battery module, a battery information management device, a battery information management system, a secondary battery reuse system, a secondary battery recovery and sales system, a secondary battery reuse method, and a secondary battery recovery and sales method, which are suitable for a vehicle or an industrial application.
2. Description of the Related Art
Global environmental issues are currently becoming major concerns and zero-emission techniques and recycle techniques are drawing attentions. In particular, the way how to recycle a rechargeable battery that contains heavy metal such as nickel or lead is a major problem among the environmental issues. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide emissions-reduction has been urged in every place to prevent global warming, and substitution of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) or pure electric vehicles (PEVs) for gasoline-engine-driven vehicles that are major sources of carbon dioxide emissions has begun.
As of now, large-sized secondary batteries including a nickel-metal hydride battery, a lead-acid battery and a lithium secondary battery are used as electric sources for driving hybrid electric vehicles or pure electric vehicles. Meanwhile, in the case of using a next-generation hydrogen fuel cell battery as a main power source, it is likely that the secondary batteries such as the nickel-metal hydride battery or the lithium battery will be used as auxiliary power. Accordingly, a demand for the large-sized secondary batteries is expected to increase in the future, and concurrently, a quantity of secondary batteries that become unrechargeable and are disposed of is also expected to increase rapidly. Therefore, construction of a secondary battery recycle system is an urgent issue.
In this specification, batteries that are capable of charging and discharging electricity for multiple times will be generically referred to as “secondary batteries.” In this case, the secondary batteries may also include capacitor (condenser) type electric devices such as electric double layer capacitors. To be more precise, the secondary batteries include what is termed as “secondary batteries” such as the lead-acid battery, the nickel-metal hydride battery, the lithium-ion battery, the lithium secondary battery and a nickel cadmium battery, and capacitor-type electrochemical devices such as an aqueous electric double layer capacitor and a nonaqueous electric double layer capacitor. Moreover, in this specification, the lithium secondary battery means a battery which is not only dischargeable but also chargeable by use of Li ions. The lithium secondary battery includes a lithium-ion battery composed of a cathode active material and an anode active material which allow insertion and desorption of Li ions and an electrolyte containing Li ions.
The large-sized secondary battery as represented by an electric source for driving a hybrid electric vehicle or a pure electric vehicle is required to have a high output or a high capacity. Accordingly, the number of cell series increases inside a battery module that constitutes such a secondary battery. The size may become as huge as 15 liters or even more. Table 1 shows some examples of large-sized secondary batteries.
TABLE 1LithiumsecondaryNickel-metalLead-acidElectric doublebatteryhydride batterybatterylayer capacitorCell voltage3.67.222.7(V)Assembled1732012454battery voltage(V)Capacity5 (Ah)6.5 (Ah)83 (Ah)65 (F)Size (dm3)22.5461325.6Weight (kg)20512266.6Energy (Wh)8651306199253Energy density43.325.68.88.0(Wh/kg)
These batteries require high performances in lifetime as well as output, and therefore consume large amounts of high-functional and expensive materials. Accordingly, there is a strong demand, in particular for reduction in product prices, and moreover, for reduction in disposal quantity with regard to large-sized secondary batteries in particular to reduce product prices, and moreover, to reduce disposal quantity. In other words, to reduce product prices of secondary batteries and to make effective use of resources, it is vital to establish techniques for making effective use of secondary batteries, including a recycling technique, for example.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-126669 (Paragraphs 0073 to 0126, FIGS. 1 to 7) discloses an example of a recycling support system by means of leasing industrial lead-acid batteries and car batteries (which are also lead-acid batteries). According to Patent Document 1, a battery manufacturer leases car batteries to car owners, and monitors conditions and usage of the leased car batteries by use of various sensors. Here, the information obtained from these sensors is gathered to a management center by use of user terminals such as car navigation devices. Then, the management center manages the conditions and usage of the car batteries individually by use of a database to predict the lifetime with a battery information analyzer and to recover the car batteries having little time to end. Meanwhile, the recovered batteries are separated into recyclable materials and wastes, and the recyclable materials are allegedly used again as the materials for car batteries by battery manufacturers. This system is supposed to be able to achieve a proper and reliable process for recycling or disposal of car batteries.
Meanwhile, only small-sized consumer batteries are recycled in the case of high-performance secondary batteries such as nickel cadmium batteries or in the case of capacitor systems and a full-scale recycle system has not been established yet in light of large-sized industrial secondary batteries of these types. In fact, the only secondary batteries that apply high-performance materials and are recycled into electrode materials are nickel cadmium batteries and lead-acid batteries. On the contrary, nickel-metal hydride batteries and lithium-ion batteries are merely used as raw materials of stainless steel products, magnets, and the like, and there is no technique for recycling these batteries as battery materials.
If hybrid electric vehicles and the like are made public and circulation of large-sized secondary batteries increases in the market in the above-mentioned situation where techniques for recycling secondary batteries have yet to be established, the disposal quantity of such large-sized secondary batteries will presumably become enormous. This is because of larger amounts and tremendously larger usage of materials of such large-sized secondary batteries in comparison with consumer products.
Reuse of the secondary batteries is an option to reduce the disposal quantity of the large-sized secondary batteries and to make effective use thereof. For example, only the reuse within the same system has been put into practice as seen in replacement of batteries with re-built products in hybrid electric vehicles. Nevertheless, battery manufacturers have prohibited to diverse applications of these batteries to those different from the original application. This is because it is not possible to ensure performances and safeties of the batteries when origins and usage histories thereof were uncertain.
Incidentally, a secondary battery, or a large-sized secondary battery for a vehicle use in particular, is often provided with a battery controller. The battery controller computes battery conditions for estimating a remaining battery level or exploiting the battery performance efficiently. Here, a host system is configured to control charging and discharging of the battery based on the information obtained by computing the battery conditions. In this specification, such a secondary battery and a battery controller for controlling operations of the secondary battery will be generically referred to as a “secondary battery system.” Meanwhile, a secondary battery manufactured in a way that multiple cells are contained into a given case so as to satisfy predetermined electrical specifications will be referred to as a “secondary battery module.” In other words, the secondary battery system is assumed to be composed of one or more secondary battery modules and the battery controller for controlling the secondary battery modules.
At this time, the battery controller includes a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory. This nonvolatile memory stores electrical characteristic information and usage condition of each of the secondary battery modules to be controlled by the battery controller. Such information and condition include, namely, rated or initial capacity, resistance, range of voltage value where the battery is usable, range of current value, available power value, open-circuit voltage and the like. Moreover, programs including a remaining amount estimation computing program and an anomaly diagnostic program are also stored therein. In addition, anomaly flags by the diagnostic program, actual resistances of the batteries, and usage history information such as capacities, change rates, maximum and minimum operating voltages, and operating time of the batteries may be stored for the purpose of countermeasures in case of troubles, for example. That is, the battery controller normally retains the electrical characteristic information on the secondary battery modules subject to control, the control programs, the usage history information and the like.
Moreover, in the case of replacing or detaching the secondary battery system, the secondary battery system is generally disassembled into the individual secondary battery modules and the battery controller. When the secondary battery system is disassembled into the pieces, it is possible to read out the information on the anomaly flags for the batteries, which are stored in the nonvolatile memory of the battery controller, for example. However, links of that information with the secondary battery modules are hardly maintained once if the secondary battery system is disassembled. Moreover, the information on the electrical characteristics of the battery modules is lost simultaneously with the disassembly of the system because the information is conventionally stored in the controller unit. For these reasons, it is difficult to reuse the secondary battery modules after the disassembly.
As described above, in the conventional case, for example, of the lead-acid battery recycling support system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-126669, lead-acid batteries are disassembled or destroyed once after used, and only useful components or constituent materials are reused. In other words, the document contains the description concerning the technique for crushing and recycling used lead-acid batteries for vehicles and the like. However, the application of that technique is limited to lead-acid batteries and the document does not disclose any technique to reuse large-sized secondary batteries in general.
Moreover, the information including the electrical characteristic information, the usage conditions, and usage histories is essential to reuse secondary batteries. However, a secondary battery reuse system in which the information is utilized has yet to be realized. In the case of attempting to realize such a reuse system in the current technique, there is an obstacle when the secondary battery system is disassembled. That is, a correlation between the secondary battery modules with the information stored in the nonvolatile memory of the secondary battery system, such as the electrical characteristic information, the usage conditions or the usage histories are lost.